Cannes Review: 'Standing Tall' Starring Catherine Deneuve Is An Affecting, Flawed Festival Opener

Last year, the Cannes Film Festival got off to the worst possible start. The opening night slot has always had ups and downs (read our feature on the best and worst of them here), and for every "Moonrise Kingdom" or "Up" there was a "Da Vinci Code" or "Blindness," but "Grace Of Monaco" was something else: a rotten, ill-conceived biopic of Grace Kelly that hasn't just skipped U.S theaters entirely, it's actually premiering on Lifetime.

Festival head Thierry Fremaux clearly had some making up to do with this year's opening night film, and he's eschewed big Hollywood stars for a more modest, homegrown effort in Emmanuelle Bercot's "Standing Tall," which also marks the first time since Diane Kurys' "A Man In Love" in 1987 that a film from a female director has kicked off Cannes. The result is a sturdy, grounded drama that's certainly far superior to last year's trainwreck, but isn't quite as satisfying to rank with...